Advisory Board
Lillian Hernandez, Ed.D.
Joined The Bronx Institute at Lehman College as a program manager in August 2008. Worked in the New York City Department of Education in several supervisory capacities including as an Assistant Principal, Supervisor of Guidance and Executive Director of the Office of Bilingual Education. Has been an adjunct professor at Baruch College, Lehman College, Bank Street College and Teachers College. Directed a special project addressing the issue of institutionalized racism in the New York City public schools at the CUNY Graduate Center. Served as a Special Assistant to a Member of the New York City Board of Education.
Lori Levine
Lori Levine has dedicated her career to securing the healthy development and success of our nation's most vulnerable children. With expertise in the fields of public health, education, family support, child welfare and civic engagement, she is committed to advancing comprehensive models to strengthen families and communities to advance equity for all. She credits her own mindfulness practice with providing her with the compassion, patience and perseverance needed to sustain her professional commitment to social justice.
Gary D. Schwartz
Senior Vice President, Tides
and Managing Director, Tides New York
Gary D. Schwartz is part of the executive team at Tides responsible for the integrated management of the Tides organizations. Gary is also Managing Director of Tides New York where he is responsible for directing operations of the New York office and overseeing Tides services to clients in the New York region. Gary joined Tides in 1999 after he served for nearly ten years as a consultant and the Executive Director of the Fund of the Four Directions in New York. The Fund was a leading grant making institution in the areas of indigenous peoples’ organizing, women’s empowerment and environmental sustainability. Gary has spent his entire career working in the nonprofit arena including tenure at the Houston Area Women’s Center Rape Crisis Center and Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City. He currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the National Domestic Violence Hotline and is a trustee with two private family foundations, as well as a trustee for Artists For A New South Africa. A former Peace Corps Volunteer (stationed in the Fiji Islands), Gary studied creative writing at Southern Illinois University and nonprofit management at the New School in New York City.
Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in
Barre, Massachusetts. She has guided meditation programs worldwide since 1974, emphasizing both the cultivation of mindfulness and the development of compassion. Sharon is the
author of The Kindness Handbook and The Force of Kindness, both published by Sounds True; Faith: Trusting
Your Own Deepest Experience, published by Riverhead Books; and
Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, published by Shambhala
Publications, as well as numerous audio guides to meditation.